Art Shmart

When I was back in Milwaukee last month, one of my good friends, Andre St. Louis, gave me one of his "Walking Man" cast-aluminum sculptures (from a series of three) which I've always thought were extremely cool. It had been on display at an internet cafe on the eastside for months, and we just went in and ripped it out of the wall (with permission, of course). The proportions of the fists in combination with the negative space where the torso should be gives the piece a weightless, yet anchored presence at the same time. And it looks bad-ass.

This is another piece of his which I like, a painting that hangs in the main office of Flux Design in Milwaukee. I think I can just relate to schools of dead fish, growing up near Lake Michigan. I felt honored to be a subject model for his senior thesis at MIAD a few years ago, but it's still wierd to see myself in sculpture form or on newsprint. I've just started the first painting I've done in about five years (below) as a wedding present for some friends of mine. I'm more of an illustrator than a painter, and I'm not a master at mixing acrylics, so I felt it safe that I use an illustrative style for the piece. In industrial design school, they teach you to think and draw fast, so I always have to put on the brakes when I do studio art. So naturally I spent about 60 seconds on a sketch that I felt worked for a vertical composition and went to work. Although I think you can pull some symbolism from the imagery (marriage is like a tree, it should be well rooted, blah blah blah), there will be a twist to it once I start populating the tree and roots, so hopefully it won't be too wierd for their home when I'm done ;)